Monday, January 26, 2015

THE "PROOF" IS IN THE ACTING

MARTIN SCANLON AND DANA BROOKE IN "PROOF"

What if your father's legacy to you is more than one hundred
notebooks filled with mathematical theorems he wrote over his lifetime?
What if another part of your inheritance could be the emotional and
mental disorders that plagued him later in life? Can
you accept the gift of his genius and not acknowledge the physical
problems that are inherently bundled together?

For Catherine on the eve of her twenty-fifth birthday, her father
Robert's early death raises a maelstrom of problems. Her grief is
compounded by all the questions that have arisen. How will who and what
he was translate to her, his offspring? For playwright
David Auburn, these intriguing puzzles are wrapped up in his 2001
Pulitzer Prize- winning and Tony Award- winning drama "Proof." West
Hartford's Playhouse on Park will unravel the mysteries until Sunday,
February 8 and you're invited to examine all the intricate
pieces of the conundrum.

Dana Brooks is the highly intelligent but confused Catherine who
treasures all that her father was to her but is frightened by the health
possibilities. The arrival of her estranged sister Claire (Melissa
Macleod Herion) only increases her anxiety. When a
young protege of her father's, his ex-graduate student Hal (Martin
Scanlon) appears and offers to examine all of Robert's notebooks to
access his mathematical contributions, Catherine seems on the verge of a
breakdown, just like the ones that afflicted her
dad (Damian Buzzerio), who appears in her imagination.

When Hal makes a major discovery, the question of who should get the
credit for it - Catherine or Robert - raises the stakes to a new
height. The theorem is a paradigm-shifting "proof" about prime numbers,
one that Catherine must struggle to accept authorship
of if she wants and deserves the credit. Dawn Loveland directs this
thought-provoking production with a cast of exceptional actors.

For tickets ($25-35), call Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, Hartford at 860-523-5900, ext. 10 or online at www.playhouseonpark.org. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday
and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Watch how a family struggles to recover from the death of the patriarch
and reestablish a structure that has been wobbling for years.